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Event

Dietzman and Co: it just is.

a Santa Cruz Dance incubator project:

Dietzman and Co.: it just is.

Molly Katzman and Sierrah Dietz have been generating material and presenting work for the past eight years. Both are movement instructors in Santa Cruz and members of Flex Dance Company. This is their first show and the culmination of 17 years of friendship and dedication to movement exploration.

Through experience and observation emotions have been named and felt. But even with all the feelings we have been told exist, during crisis and heartbreak, words cannot begin to describe what we are going through. It just is, explore the unnamed; the things we feel without knowing what to call them. The unnamed is something that, we all have felt, feel, or will feel. This show is about the navigation of that feeling, when an emotion is so strong, un-grounding, overwhelming, and foreign and what does it look like? And what do you do when you are there? This show transgresses the border between movement and emotion, and is an unbridled and exuberant surrender to the unnamed.

Molly Katzman first started dancing at the age of 12. She took a variety of dance classes including jazz, african, hip hop, ballet, and lyrical. She went on to dance throughout high school, including a summer at California State Summer School for the Arts. Molly went to Goucher College freshman year as a dance major, but after a year on the east coast, decided to come back to California. Molly began dancing at Cabrillo College where she won the Roberta Bristol award for her dancing. She then transferred to UCSC where she graduated in 2011, and danced in the productions Mixed Nutz and Random with a Purpose. Molly has choreographed for the Cabrillo dance concerts, and the Emerging Choreographers show at the 418, and has also danced with local choreographers such as Cid Pearlman, Cat Willis, and Dixie Shulman. She has been a part of Flex Dance Company since 2009, directed by Leslie Johnson, and she now teaches at Motion Pacific, Santa Cruz Dance Company, and the new Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center.

Sierrah Dietz was born in Santa Cruz and took her first dance class, ballet/tap combo, at Santa Cruz Dance Center when she was three years old. She did not revisit dance until her family moved to Nevada City where she studied jazz, hip-hop, ballet, and african styles. In high school Sierrah was accepted into the advanced dance program at Nevada Union High School, under the direction of Yelena Holt. In this program she began to explore choreography and performance as well as learned the benefits of dedication and hard work. During the summers Sierrah would travel to the bay area to take workshops with company directors such as, Scott Wells, Nina Haft, Joe Goode, and Ben Levy. after High School she attended San Francisco State University and graduated with a BA in Dance, and a certificate for Outstanding Choreography, while also performing a two year run with University Dance Theater, the on campus company. Sierrah has choreographed pieces that have been performed at Dancing in the Park, New Moves Student Choreography Showcase, and American College Dance Festival. After graduating College Sierrah became a member of CIA (Call It Art) a San Francisco dance company with artistic director Kyle Limin in Summer 2010. Sierrah danced as a guest with Flex in previous shows and was invited to join the company last year.

Santa Cruz Dance (SCD) was founded in 2008 to strengthen dance in Santa Cruz. Last year, in 2011, Santa Cruz Dance partnered with Motion Pacific Studio to renovate the Old Mill Building South of Laurel on Front Street. What is now known as "Motion at the Mill", serves as both a space for dance education and presentation. The Mill successfully presented a full season of dance in the Fall of 2011 with three weekends of sold out shows as well as offered three semesters of classes in the Summer and Fall of 2011 and Spring of 2012.

Santa Cruz Dance's mission is to support a culture where integrity, discipline, and imagination are central to dance as art. SCD envisions a vibrant dance culture based on artistic excellence, which serves to strengthen Santa Cruz as a regional center for dance performance and training. Our goals are to:Build new dance audiences by increasing the visibility of dance through well-attended community events and performances through Santa Cruz Dance Presents.Create shared resources, peer support, and forum for conversation to strengthen the dance community.Assist in the presentation/production of original dance created by local or bay area artists through MillWorks Presents.Promote cultural and artistic diversity and innovation.Facilitate artistic and organizational collaboration to support the arts in Santa Cruz.